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Counting the Business Cases for Fiber
Fiber to the home-away-from-home is the perfect solution for the busy
executive who wants a few days’ break from the office. But FTTH makes busi-
ness sense in many other situations.
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
T
his issue’s roundup begins with a “classic” FTTH de- Midwestern business park, to mega-yacht captains docked
ployment (if a decade-old technology can be said to at a marina in Florida, to a nursing home in the Bronx, to
have a classic period) – a luxury second-home devel- home-based businesses in a small Iowa town.
opment in a remote and beautiful location. This is fiber to We see a school system bringing fiber to the desk, giving
the home for the folks who have everything; it lets execu- each student the potential of having a 1 Gbps connection to
tives and professionals get away for long weekends to play the Internet.
golf and enjoy the scenery without anyone realizing they’ve We see network operators replacing aging copper and coax
left the office. plant with a cost-effective and future-proof infrastructure.
While this kind of “technology lifestyle amenity” is in-
And we see providers recognizing that ordinary people
creasingly rare in these belt-tightened times, there are still
in cities, suburbs, rural towns and even out in the “boonies”
plenty of other good reasons to deploy fiber. This month,
are eager for the entertainment and communication options
we see fiber-to-the-premises solutions being deployed to
that only fiber to the home can provide.
help businesses of all kinds become more productive and
competitive – from manufacturing firms in a traditional – MZ
INDEPENDENT
TELCOS
“Broadband Is the Lifeline”
Midvale Telephone Exchange is a The current project includes an over- spoiled rural setting of stunning natural
century-old, family-owned business build of LV Ranch Estates, a new com- beauty.” Second-home owners also ap-
that originally served the small farming munity whose developer originally pro- preciate the VoIP service available on the
community of Midvale, Idaho. In recent vided communitywide wireless Internet fiber network because it allows them to
years, the company has ventured further and telephone service. However, wire- use the same phone number at multiple
afield, bringing phone service to previ- less did not offer what buyers – mostly locations. Gooding says he likes “the
ously unserved areas of four western second-home owners – were looking for. prospect of working from a place like LV
states. Midvale strings phone lines over The developer, Peter Gooding Sr. of True Ranch Estates without anyone knowing
mountaintops when necessary to deliver
West Companies, says, “Telephone and I’m away from the office.”
reliable voice and even broadband service
Internet service is one of the top con- Midvale operations manager Dennis
to customers who once had to resort to
satellite phones. It began building fiber cerns of prospective LV Ranch Estates Farrington explains that MTE “designed
to the home several years ago and is cur- buyers. We provide water via a well on the network under the assumption that
rently building out an FTTH network each parcel and underground electric it will likely support transfer rates of as
to provide voice and Internet access to service, so reliable communication was much as 50 Mbps in the not-too-distant
residents of Williamson Valley, Arizona. really the last piece of the puzzle. Now, future,” because, as he says, “We see
Fiber’s superior speed and reduced fire thanks to MTE’s fiber optic network, broadband becoming the lifeline for ru-
risk are both important considerations owners can enjoy one of the most conve- ral communities like LV Ranch Estates
in these rural communities. nient features of urban living in an un- in the next five to ten years.”
14 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproper ties.com | July/August 2009
Major FTTH Expansion speed voice and data services today but tian, comments that Occam’s platform,
For CinErgy METronET hopes to add video services later. which supports multiple architectures
Competitive provider Cinergy Metro- Sebastian, an ILEC based in Ker- and services, allows the company to
Net, which provides broadband services man, California, will be using Occam “efficiently manage our networks and
to rural communities, is using ADC’s Networks solutions to build out fiber to eliminate unnecessary cost, providing
solutions to expand its FTTP network the premises in greenfield subdivisions us a huge advantage when migrating our
in 11 communities in Indiana. When at the same time it upgrades its existing customers to fiber.”
the rollout is completed by the end of network to ADSL2+ with bonded cop- Western Iowa Networks (WIN),
the 2010, Cinergy MetroNet’s thou- per pairs. Mitch Drake, VP of Sebas- an ILEC and local cable provider, is get-
sands of subscribers will have access to
high-speed Internet, service, high-defi-
DIGITAL HEADEND SOLUTIONS
nition TV, and advanced phone services.
Kevin Stelmach, general manager and
vice president for Cinergy MetroNet,
says, “We have made a long-term com-
mitment to the communities we serve
to work with them to bring economic
strength and vitality through new tech-
nologies and assurance that our custom-
ers receive the best and most reliable I 8VSB
DAP NTSC+ASI
services we can deliver.” ADC products AQT QAM
being deployed by Cinergy MetroNet
include OmniReach Fiber Distribu- AQD AV+ASI
tion Hub (FDH) cabinets, OmniReach
Multiport Service Terminals (MSTs) DHDP 8VSB
and fiber-hardened drop cables. II 8/QPSK
QTM QAM
ADTRAN announced a series of
customer wins for its GPON solution in IRD AQM QAM
the independent telco segment. Peoples ASI
Telephone Cooperative, serving north-
IRD EQAM QAM
east Texas, selected ADTRAN’s Total By others IP
Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and
Aggregation Platform (MSAP) and 300
Series ONTs. According to central of-
fice manager Brent Tennis, the GPON
solution “will allow us to transition to
next-generation services at our pace LOCAL
without worrying about network and CONTENT
III
HD/SDI
system capacity. This solution provides HDE-ASI ASI
everything we need to meet customer
demand today, and unlimited possibili- SD SD4E-ASI ASI
ties for the future.” SD10E-QAM QAM
Additional new customers for AV
ADTRAN’s GPON solution included AV10E-QAM QAM
Rice Belt Telephone in northern Arkan-
sas, South Central Rural Telephone HDMI HDE-QAM QAM
Cooperative (SCRTC) in Kentucky, HDE-2H-QAM QAM
NTELOS in the Appalachian region and
Diller Telephone Company in south-
eastern Nebraska. Rice Belt and SCRTC
plan to deliver triple-play services over IP.
SCRTC and NTELOS will be using the Think
ADTRAN equipment to deliver triple-
Forward. We Do. www.blondertongue.com
play services over both copper and fiber
access networks; Diller will offer high-
July/August 2009 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 15
ting ready to begin its FTTH rollout in it serves. Services on the new network terproof and sealed. They’re easy to set
the city of Carroll, Iowa, using financing will include Voice over IP and fast Inter- up and install, and Clearfield has always
from RUS. Construction in the central net services; IPTV may be added later. been ‘Johnny-on-the-spot’ – always
business district will begin in Septem- D&P Communications, an ILEC there when I need them.”
ber and progress to residential areas in in southern Michigan, is also using Hickory Telephone is using Zhone’s
the fall. WIN plans to deliver triple-play Clearfield cabinets for fiber manage- new MXK platform for its GPON de-
services under the “Evolution” brand ment. D&P is converting 4,500 cus- ployment in Hickory, a rural community
name, including advanced video services tomers to FTTH, beginning in Tecum- in southwestern Pennsylvania. Hickory’s
(digital video, DVR, VoD) that are not seh, Michigan, and extending through new “Aurora” service offers Internet ac-
feasible with WIN’s current cable plant. two counties. Mid-State Consultants,
cess at speeds up to 15 Mbps/5 Mbps,
Prairie Grove Telephone Com- D&P’s engineering and consultant firm,
standard and high-definition video, and
pany (PGTelco), a family-owned and selected Clearfield as fiber management
digital voice. Existing Zhone customers
-operated telephone company, has cho- supplier primarily for reasons of aesthet-
upgrading to the MXK for new deploy-
sen Clearfield as its fiber management ics. Says Mid-State Regional Vice Presi-
supplier. PGTelco is rolling out FTTH dent Gordy Caverly, “D&P wanted as ments include Ketchikan Public Utili-
to some of its 8,500 customers in five ex- few above-ground cabinets as possible. ties in Alaska, Yadkin Valley Tele-
changes in Northwest Arkansas. And those that were necessary, had to com in North Carolina and Stratford
PGTelco’s project originated as a be unobtrusive. The city of Tecumseh Mutual Telephone Company in Iowa
greenfield installation with the con- is very happy that we selected a product (see box).
struction of new subdivisions in 2007. that was compact and, basically, out of Waitsfield and Champlain Val-
The company is now exploring the pos- sight. And we’re happy with the crafts- ley Telecom, a family-owned telco in
sibility of updating brownfield struc- manship, quality and workmanship of Vermont serving 20,000 customers, is
tures in older areas of the communities the cabinets. They’re solidly built, wa- extending its fiber-to-the-home service
sTraTFord MuTuaL goEs aLL-FibEr
Iowa is the land of small phone companies, and strat- all-copper to an all-fiber network that led to a complete
ford Mutual Telephone Company is typical of them – culture shift in our organization. Fiber requires a different
after a century as a leading institution in its hometown language, different tools and different skill sets.”
of Stratford (motto: “The place to be”) it has fewer than
600 access lines in all. When it comes to technology, “FibEr is LiMiTLEss”
however, Stratford Mutual is in the lead. The company Vance Cook, the company’s telephone network man-
began experimenting with fiber to the home as early as ager, explains, “Copper is a static medium and you had
2005, and recently made a wholesale cutover of its old to learn to work within its limits. With fiber, you can al-
copper plant to fiber. Now Stratford residents living as ways add more services so the network is constantly
far as 11 miles from the central office have gone from ki- evolving. Fiber is limitless. That means you never think of
lobit dial-up connections to digital TV, interactive voice the project as done.”
services and double-digit Internet speeds. Cook handled the cutovers from copper to fiber at the
“There’s a time for everything and Stratford’s aging subscriber sites and reports that the zNID design saved
copper plant was proving to be more of a liability than an Stratford Mutual hundreds of staff hours in installation
asset,” says David Fridley, VP of engineering and consult- time. zNID uses the latest version of HomePNA, which
ing for the Martin Group, the firm enlisted by Stratford to
delivers services over coax, phone wire or Ethernet, and
help with financing, network planning and platform se-
it doesn’t require a bulky cable to deliver power and
lection. Stratford also wanted to provide a higher-quality
alarms to the ONT. AC battery power and alarm signaling
video product to its subscribers.
are delivered via 19-gauge thermostat wire, reducing the
With the help of the Martin Group, Stratford selected
a GPON solution based on Zhone’s new MXK intelligent risks and costs of drilling holes through customer’s walls
terabit access concentrator, which Fridley describes as to run in-home cable. “No conduit,” Cook says. “Some-
“competitive and leading edge.” In addition, Zhone’s thing our technicians and customers can all appreciate.”
zNID was chosen as the customer-premises equipment Keeping the community informed helped generate
and the Tekelec 7000 Class 5 Packet Switch was selected support for the project. Stratford held open houses and
to replace Stratford’s old Class 5 switch. The Martin Group published op-eds in the local paper emphasizing project
also helped Stratford secure RUS funding for the project. milestones. It also included inserts in monthly statements
General manager Randy Baker says, “The platform and keeping customers informed about planned construc-
software were the easy part. It was the evolution from an tion. “Community partnership is vital when you’re dig-
16 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproper ties.com | July/August 2009
in the town of Richmond, according to
local press. Subscribers will be upgraded
A nursing home replaces five carriers’ T1 lines
free of charge and will maintain their with one fiber optic line, increases bandwidth
current service levels.
Northwest Communications Co- and saves $28,000 per year.
operative (NCC) in North Dakota be-
gan rolling out a test FTTH project near large businesses. Because this hosted ternet and voice service. In addition to
the town of Wildrose in 2007. This sum- voice system, which uses Cisco IP phones reducing operating expenses, Morning-
mer, according to the company’s Web and delivers true high-definition voice side was able to add bandwidth to sup-
site, crews are working on an FTTH quality, requires less bandwidth than port its clinical database, hosted payroll
project in Epping, where contractors standard voice protocols, it increases and pharmacy applications.
are burying fiber, installing ONTs and the efficiency of the Ethernet-based fi- Competitive provider Jaguar Com-
back-up power supply boxes in homes ber optic network. Optimum Lightpath munications, which has been rolling
and businesses, and splicing fiber at the out FTTH in rural Minnesota since
also announced that its customer Morn-
premises. Customers were scheduled for receiving an RUS loan in 2006, is get-
ingside House, a Bronx-based subsidiary
turnup throughout the summer. ting ready to deploy fiber in the town
of Aging in America, is saving nearly
of Hayfield and offer triple-play services
nEw businEss sErviCEs $28,000 per year by consolidating its there, according to local press. The first
aT opTiMuM LigHTpaTH telecommunications services on a fiber customers should be online by the end
Optimum Lightpath, a fiber-to-the- optic line. Morningside House replaced of the year.
business provider in the New York met- T1 lines provided by five different carri- SureWest Communications, which
ropolitan area, has introduced a new ers with Optimum Lightpath’s 50 Mbps offers symmetrical Internet access at
HD-Voice service for mid-sized and metro Ethernet service and 20 Mbps In- speeds up to 50 Mbps, boosted connec-
ging up the streets,” Baker says. “Now, there’s a shared in the system. At high speeds, it becomes difficult to
excitement that our town has built a state-of-the-art IP guarantee quality of experience – for instance, eliminat-
infrastructure and our network in Stratford is faster than ing the “echo” in packet-based voice systems. “You have
anything you’d find in any major city in the world.” to look at every packet,” Glapa says.
The town’s excitement is evidenced in the speed of Looking ahead to the future, Zhone decided not to
adoption. Stratford reports a hockey-stick curve on the simply upgrade its earlier platform but to design a new
take rates for high-speed broadband and digital TV. one from scratch – a platform that did not assume band-
“Stratford’s new network has led many residents to start width oversubscription, that could be easily scaled up-
home-based businesses,” says Brian Wilde of the Strat- ward and that had the requisite intelligence built in.
ford Community Development Corporation. “And the TV
is great,” he adds. The school system is also installing no MorE waiTing in LinE
“Smart Desks” to give each student personal high-speed This “clean sheet” approach yielded an entirely new ar-
Internet access. chitecture, with the cards connected in a star topology
rather than the typical bus/backplane architecture. Each
dEsigning For THE “HuLu pHEnoMEnon” line card connects to the uplink with dedicated 10-giga-
The new MXK platform is almost as transformative for bit traces, and redundant uplinks allow for graceful fail-
Zhone as it was for Stratford – Steve Glapa, Zhone’s VP of ure. “The original Ethernet was ‘wait your turn, hang up
marketing and product management, calls it “one of most and wait,’” Glapa says. “Now everyone has a dedicated
significant product launches in the company’s history.” line.”
As part of its technology roadmap process, the com- To help providers reduce capex, Zhone offers the MXK
pany tracked bandwidth demand – especially online in two widths, with the smaller box designed for small
video and other streaming unicast traffic, which renders deployments like Stratford’s. Similarly, the GPON cards
the “oversubscription” model of bandwidth allocation come in not only the usual four-port version but an eight-
obsolete – and realized that forecasts were being revised port version as well, yielding significant savings per port.
upward every year. “Even the 2009 forecast is conserva- “The flip side of scalability is efficiency,” Glapa points
tive,” Glapa says, citing the “Hulu phenomenon.” And out. For a 1,000-person town like Stratford, “one of these
considering that Americans still watch an average of five [MXKs] covers the town. It’s a little ample, but think about
hours per day of linear TV and only 10 minutes of Inter- it in terms of a lot of headroom…There will be 1 Gbps to
net video, the potential for future growth is enormous. the home in the future. Even in a town of 1,000 people, 1
As bandwidth rises, so does the need for intelligence Gbps to every schooldesk will tap out the box.”
July/August 2009 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 17
tion speeds for fiber-to-the-home cus- searching for ways to receive more value with the fastest connection speeds wher-
tomers in its greater Sacramento market from their products and services,” says ever we serve.” SureWest also launched
with no extra cost or action required by Pete Drozdoff, vice president of market- Caller ID on TV, which new triple-play
the customer, and said it is planning ing for SureWest. “This free speed up- customers will receive automatically and
bandwidth upgrades in its Kansas City grade enhances the Internet experience free of charge. Customers have the op-
market for 2010. “In today’s environ- for our customers and continues to al- tion to turn the Caller ID on TV feature
ment, customers are understandably low us to outperform the competition on or off and customize it. bbp
CABLE
COMPANIES
Broadstripe Provides GePON
Solution to Business Park
Cable provider Broadstripe, which serves customers in Michi-
gan, Maryland, Washington and Oregon, recently launched a
fiber-based commercial offering, using Aurora Networks’ Ge-
PON solution.
Dave Harwood, Broadstripe’s regional vice president and
general manager, says, “For Broadstripe’s commercial services
offering, we set out to serve a combination of T1, high-speed
and dial-up customers including Brooks Industrial Park in
Marshall, Michigan, an established business park that was
previously receiving its business service from a competing pro-
vider. With Aurora Networks GePON solutions, we are the
only provider able to offer 10 to 100 Mbps of dedicated fiber
services to each of Brooks Industrial Park’s current customers.”
Harwood adds that Broadstripe “can now take advantage of
the huge growth opportunities available in business services by
competitively delivering what customers are demanding.”
The deployment to the industrial park includes a Virtual
Hub (VHub) equipped with Node PON technology on Broad-
stripe’s existing fiber infrastructure from its main headend to
the park, approximately 40 miles. New fiber was laid to the
streetside curb of each business with a SMART Media Con-
verter installed directly in the premises to connect business Aurora RF PON hub containing two GePON optical line terminals.
subscribers to Broadstripe’s core network. The SMART Media
Converter was designed to increase bandwidth capacity spe- single fiber. The casing can also house additional products such
cifically for high-speed data services, allowing Broadstripe, and as amplifiers, passives and return path transmitters.
other cable operators, to capitalize on business opportunities. “This distributed architecture eliminates the single point
of failure,” Kulkarni says. “If a chassis [in a central office] goes
a CabLE-oriEnTEd arCHiTECTurE down, it’s taking down the whole city. The distributed solution
Shridhar Kulkarni, software product manager at Aurora Net- is more localized. Also, an outdoor solution doesn’t need as
works, explains that Aurora’s GePON solution is designed with much real estate or fiber, so the return on investment automati-
the needs of cable operators in mind. While GePON’s 20-mile cally improves in a substantial way.”
maximum doesn’t trouble telcos, which typically locate cen- Dawn Emms, Aurora’s director of marketing for optical
tral offices closer than that to their subscribers, it presents a transport solutions, adds that the greatest appeal of the Node
problem for cable operators, which typically locate their hubs PON technology for Broadstripe was that it enabled the com-
further away. To solve this problem, Aurora designed a small pany to serve the business park without an active optical trans-
GePON optical line terminal (OLT) that fits inside a cable mission network (OTN) location. If the businesses were served
node, allowing it to serve as a virtual hub, or VHub (see pic- with coax, an active, or powered, device would be required to
ture of a VHub with two GePON modules). The virtual hub convert the signal from fiber to coax. Using passive technology
is placed in the field – it can even be strand-mounted on a tele- like GePON allows Broadstripe to deliver much higher band-
phone pole – and it supports as many as 256 subscribers on a width, far more cost-effectively. bbp
18 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproper ties.com | July/August 2009
PrOPErTy
OwNErS
Fiber to the Yacht in Florida
Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and business – which in general was expen- 10 to 20 years and overall is much more
Refit deployed Alloptic’s GePON solu- sive and slow. Today, all mega-yachts reliable than copper,” says Vander Wa-
tion to its 60 yacht slips and through- docked at Rybovich Super Yacht Marina gen. By locating Alloptic’s optical net-
out its 12-acre property in West Palm and Refit can securely access our dedi- work units (ONUs) in self-drying power
Beach, Florida. “Rybovich is known for cated, high-speed Internet and phone pedestal enclosures at each slip, Rybovich
its world-class accommodations and ser- services at their slip, allowing them to Super Yacht Marina and Refit protects
vice. By deploying Alloptic’s fiber optic conduct business without the additional its investment against the ever-changing
infrastructure across our property we fees of expensive satellite connections.” and sometimes harsh environmental
increase the value we provide to our cap- Nature also factored into the deci- conditions. Alloptic says its GePON in-
tains and their crews,” says John Vander sion to employ Alloptic’s fiber-optic in- frastructure is a sought-after solution in
Wagen, Rybovich CIO. “Prior to the Al- frastructure. “Our copper system lasted challenging seaside environments that
loptic deployment our customers used only three years in these challenging con- face everything from high-temperature
their satellite connections for day-to-day ditions. We expect that fiber will last us humidity to hurricanes. bbp
MuNICIPALITIES
Municipal Utilities Use Fiber for Smart Grids
EPB, the municipally owned power utility serving Chatta- nearly all of the poles require some “make ready” work to make
nooga and surrounding areas of Tennessee, is starting to con- room for the fiber, ranging from installing new riser guards
nect customers to its new FTTH network as of July and plans to actually swapping out the poles for taller poles. Once the
to offer services throughout the cities of Chattanooga, East make-ready work is finished, aerial construction can begin.
Ridge and Red Bank by next summer. In addition to providing KPU Telecommunications, the municipal telecom pro-
residents with triple-play services, EPB will use its fiber optic vider for Ketchikan, Alaska, will use EchoStar Satellite Ser-
network to support a smart grid initiative. The utility recently vices’s ViP-TV video transport service to deliver up to 42
awarded a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract for network high-definition TV channels to its IP headend. The city offers
deployment and customer fulfillment services to systems inte- residents ultra-high-speed broadband, TV services and Inter-
grator Adesta, which will perform services related to both the net phone services; by the end of this summer’s construction
smart grid initiative and the delivery of communications and season, it should be nearly 50 percent finished with its citywide
entertainment services. buildout of fiber to the home. With the additional channels
Another smart grid initiative is being undertaken by the
city of Danville, Virginia, whose nDanville fiber optic net-
work will be used to support the initiative. ONUG Commu- VeNdOr SPOtLIGht
nications, a Raleigh-based contractor, is assisting the city by ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adc.com
providing fiber optic splicing and related services. The new Adesta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adestagroup.com
system will use advanced sensing, communication networking ADTRAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adtran.com
and control technologies to generate and distribute electricity Alloptic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.alloptic.com
more effectively, economically and securely. Atlantic Engineering
Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.atlantic-engineering.com
The city of Salisbury, North Carolina – one of very few Aurora Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.aurora.com
that is building municipal broadband without having operated Cisco Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.cisco.com
an electric utility first – is working with Atlantic Engineer- Clearfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.clearfieldconnection.com
ing Group to deploy fiber throughout the city. As detailed on EchoStar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.echostar.com
the city’s FTTH blog last month, AEG was installing splitter Martin Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.martin-group.com
cabinets in the field and completing construction of the under- Mid-State Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.mscon.com
ground plant. Aerial plant has presented more of a problem, as Occam Networks . . . . . . . . . . . www.occamnetworks.com
the city doesn’t own its own poles. It has reached agreements Onug Communications . . . . . . www.onugsolutions.com
Zhone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.zhone.com
with Duke Energy and AT&T to place fiber on their poles, but
July/August 2009 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 19
from EchoStar, KPU will offer a total of 58 HD channels and ports. Nearly all of the city’s approximately 1,000 households
more than 140 standard-definition TV channels. now have access to high-speed Internet, digital television and
The City of Bellevue, Iowa, has completed the rollout of phone services on the city’s new network. The city had previ-
its iVue fiber-to-the-home network, according to local press re- ously operated an analog cable television system. bbp
rBOC
uPDATE
Verizon Swims Upstream
Faster broadband speeds – especially
upstream speeds – are now available for
Verizon entered the content provider business
Verizon’s FiOS subscribers. Verizon an- with hyper-local FIOS1 TV stations in New York
nounced in June that it was doubling to
quadrupling the upstream connection and New Jersey. It’s partnering with several news
speeds and increasing the downstream organizations for content production.
connection speeds of its most popular
FiOS Internet offerings. Entry-level well, indicating that Verizon is aiming six years, though areas with a population
FiOS Internet service went from 10 to compete on features rather than on density below 20 households per mile are
Mbps downstream/2 Mbps upstream price, at least in the range that will ap- exempted. Fifty percent of the city has to
to 15/5 Mbps, and the mid-tier offering peal to most consumers. be built out within three years.
went from 20/5 Mbps to 25/15 Mbps.
In New York and surrounding areas, the Fios goEs HypEr-LoCaL aT&T buiLds ouT
entry-level connection speed is 25/15 Verizon entered the content business FibEr in indiana
Mbps, and the mid-tier offering is 35/20 with a splash, presenting new local AT&T has been building fiber to the
Mbps. (These offerings are available only FiOS1 channels in New York and New home in greenfield developments as part
in bundles.) Jersey. The channels will feature “hyper- of its U-verse deployment for several
“From grade-schoolers to grandpar- local” content including news, traffic, years, but hasn’t been publicizing these
ents, no one wants to wait for long up- weather, high school and college sports builds, preferring to emphasize the U-
loads any more than they want to wait and profiles of local residents and events. verse brand and services rather than any
for long downloads,” says Mike Ritter, “FiOS1 Long Island and FiOS1 New particular technology. Recently, however,
chief marketing officer for Verizon Tele- Jersey are all about the communities. the company announced a major U-verse
com. “Verizon has good news for people These FiOS1 channels will redefine the FTTH build to Bluestone Apartments,
who want to enjoy interactive applica- delivery of truly local information about a master-planned rental development in
tions like video chat, quickly back up people, news and what’s going on in
the aptly named Greenfield, Indiana.
those areas,” says Ritter. “With industry-
their hard drives, upload photos and (The city actually dates from the 19th
leading partners and a cutting-edge and
videos to e-mail and social networking century.) This is the first AT&T fiber-to-
energized team of mobile journalists, or
sites, or send large files to co-workers the-home development in Indiana.
Mo-Jos, we plan to bring FiOS TV sub-
or clients: The ultra-fast downstream The agreement with Bluestone
scribers the type of programming that
and upstream speed you need every day Apartments is part of the AT&T Con-
matters most – targeted, timely and tai-
is here. It’s widely available, affordably lored for local communities.” nected Communities program, a strate-
priced, and there are no artificial limits The partners Ritter refers to include gic marketing initiative between AT&T
placed on how much you can use.” the North Shore - LIJ Health System and regional or national builders, de-
Verizon also launched a promotional and other producers on Long Island, velopers and property owners. Through
offer for new FiOS customers. Triple play and The Star Ledger/NJ.com, NJN the agreement with AT&T Connected
subscribers will receive free or discounted Public Television, and others in New Communities, more than 200 units in
Compaq Mini netbooks or Flip Ultra Jersey. The Regional News Network Bluestone Apartments will receive IP-
camcorders – two devices specifically de- (RNN) is providing news and produc- based video, high-speed Internet and
signed for connectivity, and, in the case tion functions. voice services, along with wireless home
of the camcorder, upstream connectivity. Finally, Verizon has reached a “ten- or office networking at no extra cost and
(The value of the promotion varies with tative” agreement with the city of Pitts- unlimited access to the nation’s largest
the level of service ordered.) burgh for a TV franchise. The agreement WiFi network.
There’s no free lunch, however – rates calls for building out the FiOS network In Canada, regional incumbent Bell
for the lower and middle tiers went up as to all neighborhoods of the city within Aliant, with support from the Govern-
20 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproper ties.com | July/August 2009
ment of New Brunswick, says it will be Bell Aliant, says, “In addition to bring- service agreements for three years. Addi-
the first in Canada to cover an entire city ing the most advanced technology to our tionally, to ensure that New Brunswick
with fiber to the home technology. Bell customers, it makes economic sense for technology and construction companies
Aliant is investing $60 million to serve Bell Aliant in these markets because of participate, the province is contributing
70,000 homes and businesses in the cit- the cost advantages associated with our $1 million (Canadian) to the project.
ies of Fredericton and Saint John with virtually 100 percent aerial network in- In return, as part of the FTTH build,
triple-play services by mid-2010. Some frastructure and low population density.” Bell Aliant will award a total of $3 mil-
customers in Fredericton will begin re- The Government of New Brunswick lion in project-related contracts to local
ceiving services as early as this year. is renewing its strategic partnership with businesses, delivering further economic
Karen Sheriff, president and CEO of Bell Aliant by extending two existing benefit to the province. bbp
dePLOYer SPOtLIGht
norTH aMEriCan TELCos
AT&T www.att.com
Bell Aliant www.aliant.ca
Cinergy MetroNet www.cinergy
metronet.com
D&P Communications
www.d-pcommunications.com
Diller Telephone Company
www.diodecom.net/dillertel1.htm
Hickory Telephone www.hky.com
Jaguar Communications
www.jaguarcommunications.com
Midvale Telephone Exchange
www.midvaletelephone.com
Northwest Communications
Cooperative www.nccray.com Alaska
NTELOS www.ntelos.com
Optimum Lightpath
www.optimumlightpath.com states with fresh
Peoples Telephone Cooperative deployment activity.
www.peoplescom.net
Prairie Grove Telephone Company
www.pgtelco.com Western Iowa Networks www.win-4-u.com
Rice Belt Telephone www.ricebelt.net Yadkin Valley Telecom www.yadtel.net
Sebastian www.sebastiancorp.com
South Central Rural Telephone oTHEr norTH aMEriCan dEpLoyErs
Cooperative www.scrtc.com Broadstripe www.broadstripe.com
Stratford Mutual Telephone City of Bellevue, Iowa www.ivuenet.com
Company www.stratfordtelephone.com City of Salisbury, North Carolina www.ci.salisbury.nc.us
SureWest Communications www.surewest.com EPB www.epb.net
Verizon Communications www.verizon.com KPU Telecommunications www.kputel.net
Waitsfield and Champlain Valley nDanville www.ndanville.net
Telecom www.wcvt.com Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit www.rybovich.com
INTErNATIONAL
DEPLOyMENTS
WDM-PON deployment in Norway….FTTH in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan…Massive fiber deploy-
ments planned in China…
Read all of these stories and more in the digital edition at
www.bbpmag.com/bbponline.php
July/August 2009 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 21
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